The Baseball Stadiums of Major League Baseball: Part 3

The Baseball Stadiums of Major League Baseball: Part 3

Continuing the tours around the ballparks of Major League Baseball (MLB). 

AL West

1. Minute Maid Park- Home of the Houston Astros  

Minute Maid Park is the home field of the AL West Houston Astros of Major League Baseball. A few cool things about this stadium is that it has a retractable roof and has a train that runs behind its left field fence every time an astro hits a home run. Minute Maid Parks' seating capacity is currently 41,656 and this ballpark opened in April of 2000.

2. Angel Stadium- Home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Nicknamed the Big A, Angel Stadium is home to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of the AL West Division. They share this beloved city of baseball with the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League West Division. A unique feature this stadium has is that left of the Center field wall, there is a waterfall located that catches baseballs and is just overall a cool feature that adds unique flare to the stadium. The Big A fits 45,957 home and visiting fans within its confines.

3. O.co Coliseum- Home of the Oakland Athletics 

O.co Coliseum is the home of both the Oakland Athletics of the American League West in Major League Baseball and the Oakland Raiders of the AFC West Division of the National Football League. This stadium is the only one in all of baseball that also houses a professional football team. Although the stadium has a capacity of 56,027 seats, only 35,067 are available for use for baseball games, making this stadium the  2nd smallest in all of the Major Leagues right behind the Tampa Bay Rays of the American League East.

4. Safeco Field- Home of the Seattle Mariners

Seattle is home of many awesome places like the space needle and also, Safeco Field which is home of the AL Wests' Seattle Mariners. This stadium does not have a great view of the city of Seattle because of the retractable roof that when not in use, seems to hover over right and center field respectively. Never the less, Safeco is an awesome place to be that the Mariners have called home since 1999 and is nicknamed, "The House that Griffey Built", referring to retired Mariner and nearly unanimously-voted MLB Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. Safeco's seating capacity is 47,943.

5. Globe Life Park in Arlington- Home of the Texas Rangers

Arguably one of the coolest ballparks in all of baseball, Globe Life Park in Arlington is home to the Texas Rangers of the American League West. Interestingly, former President of the United States George W. Bush was once part owner of this historic franchise. This stadium opened in opened on April Fools Day in 1994 and can seat 48,114 wild sports loving Rangers fans as well as visiting team fans (as long as they aren't Astros fans). 

The Baseball Stadiums of Major League Baseball: Part 2

The Baseball Stadiums of Major League Baseball: Part 2 

Continuing on the tour of each Major League Baseball club and their ballpark (MLB).  

The AL Central Teams

1. U.S. Cellular Field- Home of the Chicago White Sox

U.S. Cellular Field is home to the Chicago White Sox of the American League Central Division. Chicago is one of only three cities with multiple MLB teams, the other two being Los Angeles (Angels and Dodgers), and New York (Mets and Yankees). Opened in 1991, this baseball park  on the South Side of Chicago has a seating capacity of around 40,615.

2. Progressive Field- Home of the Cleveland Indians 

Progressive Field is home of the AL Central Cleveland Indians. Opened in 1994 as Jacobs Field and renovated most recently in this past off season from December 2015 to the beginning of this season, this ballpark has an amazing city skyline view that lights up the city of Cleveland at night. Nicknamed, "The Jake", the Indians ballpark can seat about 37,675, one of the smallest stadiums in all of baseball.

3. Comerica Park- Home of the Detroit Tigers

Home of the Detroit Tigers of the AL Central, Comerica Park has a lot to offer. From the amazing views and of course, baseball there is so much that makes this baseball stadium unique. It is one of only two stadium in the major leagues to have a dirt path that goes completely from the mound to home plate, the other being Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. This stadium has a seating capacity of about 41,574.

4. Kauffman Stadium- Home of the Kansas City Royals 

Home of the Kansas City Royals of the AL Central, Kauffman Stadium is quite an interesting baseball stadium. Nicknamed the K and formally known as Royals stadium, this ballpark now boasts a 2015 World Series Champions plaque as the Royals won the World Series last year. Its seating capacity is about 40,933 and it opened in 1973.

5. Target Field- Home of the Minnesota Twins 

Target Field is the 2nd newest MLB stadium (Marlins Park opened in 2012), opening in April of 2010 to start the 2010 MLB Season for its team, the Minnesota Twins of the AL Central. It's seating capacity is about 38,871.

The Baseball Stadiums of Major League Baseball: Part 1

The Baseball Stadiums of Major League Baseball: Part 1

A tour through the baseball stadiums of every Major League ball club (MLB). 

A. AL EAST
1. Oriole Park at Camden Yards- Home of the Baltimore Orioles

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is home to the Baltimore Orioles of the American League East Division within Major League Baseball (MLB). This ballpark is unique for having a brick building as part of its direct backdrop. The seating capacity of this ballpark is 45,791 and this park opened for Major League play on April 6th, 1992. Oriole Park's signature food is barbeque, specifically the BBQ located at none other than Boog's Bar-B-Que, located under the orange tent behind the centered field bleachers, this is a popular eatery for any Orioles fan or any fan visiting the ballpark.

2. Fenway Park-Home of the Boston Red Sox

Fenway Park is home to the Boston Red Sox also of the American League East Division within Major League Baseball (MLB). Opening in 1912, this is the oldest operating stadium in all of the major leagues. Interestingly, it opened on April 20th, only 5 days after the sinking of the Titanic on its way to New York. Fenway Park has a seating capacity of 36,673. This park is one of only two in Major League Baseball to, despite adding an electronic scoreboard during its last major renovation, still do score keeping by hand on the left field scoreboard where there is a score board operator who manually puts in and takes out numbers according to the action on the field.  

3. Yankee Stadium II- Home of the New York Yankees

Yankee Stadium II is home to the New York Yankees of the American League East Division. Opened in 2009 replacing the Old Yankee Stadium, this ballpark is the 2nd newest in all of major league baseball, right behind Minnesota's Target Field which opened in 2010.  (until next year when the Braves open their new stadium). Its current seating capacity is 49,642 and this ballpark is located in the heart of the Bronx borough of New York City. Some of the greatest names in sports have played here including, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.

4. Tropicana Field- Home of the Tampa Bay Rays

Tropicana Field is home to the newest MLB team, the Tampa Bay Rays. They play in the AL East Division. This team was created in 1998 and this stadium is the only MLB team to operate completely indoors and one of only seven teams that has a permanent or retractable roof system. The seating capacity is currently about 40,473 and this ballpark also has a catwalk located high above the fields that sometimes gets baseballs stuck in it.

5. Rogers Centre- Home of the Toronto Blue Jays

The Rogers Centre is home to the final team of the AL East, the Toronto Blue Jays. This is the only Major League Baseball team that plays their home games outside of the United States as this franchise is located in the city of Toronto, Canada. All the seats in this stadium are the color blue, as the mascot for the team is the Blue Jay. The stadium opened in 1989 and has a seating capacity of 49,282.

This is just one of six posts that will be included in this blog about all 30 MLB stadiums. Enjoy it!

Sources of Inspiration Post #1

The Good Will and Life Scene Story 

This blog post will consist of discussions of my various trips to the store, Good Will as well as ones just from my life, and the designs, color, and typography of various items I have found at this store, although not ones that I have necessarily bought. 

 

1. This is a coffee cup that I bought from a Good Will a couple of months ago. As you can see, there are a couple different font types and designs. There are also many different colors that, combined with the design and font types make this coffee cup unique. As with most things that come from Good Will, this coffee cup was probably about five or six years old when I found it, however it was still in fairly good shape. I like the design of it because all of the color combinations really make it pop out to the viewer. I also have a personal connection to what is written on this mug because of my Christian beliefs. Also, one word is written in larger print and in red, signifying its importance to the whole concept of the inspirational and biblical quote on the cup. 

2. This second item I did not find at Good Will, but rather at Barnes and Noble, a bookstore near my house with other locations throughout the United States. I really like the design of the cover of this book. The typography is visually appealing and fairly simple, and the spacing makes the title, subtitle, author, and sub authors' name, easy to read and clear. I also like the coloring of this font being a simple black color and the color blue for the cover itself. It is also cool how the lines come from the center of the top of this cover along with circles at the ends of them that makes it look like a light ascending down from heaven. 

I enjoy how both of these items signify my believe system and both have really cool designs to them as well. I enjoy just looking around for things that help show my identity and shape my life and are overall just really cool aspects in the world as well, and I can't wait to share more with you in my second sources of inspiration post coming soon! 

Baseball Statistics 101

Baseball Statistics 101: The Basics

A large part of baseball that is often overlooked by most fans that aren't super fans, but is extremely important to the sport. 

Baseball is more than just the game, batting practice, infield drills, outfield drills, bullpen sessions, spring training, trades, food, and free agent signings. Baseball, like all sports, includes something important about the players that can help determine how good of a player they will be each year and it is: stats. 

Baseball Pitching Stats example (Clayton Kershaw through 2013 season)

First of all, this is what the back of a baseball card looks like. It usually has some basic information about the player such as height, weight, if they throw and bat left or right (or switch for hitting meaning they can bat left or right) date of birth, where they are from and when they were drafted.

Then there's the actual baseball stats based on the year, what team the player was on that year and then the stats themselves and how they performed in each category that year. For pitchers, there are 12 main stats as shown in the example above. They are as follows:

IP: Innings Pitched
OS%: Strike percentage
RS/GS: Runs per game started
HR/9: Home runs given up per nine innings of pitching
SO/BB: Strike out to walk ratio
LOB%: Runners left on base percentage
GB%: Ground ball out percentage
WHIP: Walks and Hits per inning
ERA: Earned run average
FIP: Fielding Independent Pitching
WPA: Win Probability Added
WAR: Wins Above replacement

NOTE: We will cover these in more detail in a later blog post probably.

Baseball Batting Stats example

Batting statistics on the other hand, which there are 15 main ones, are more simple to understand and explain so they will be explain in full below:

G- Games, the number of games the player has participated in a season (both batters and pitchers have this stat)
AB- At bats, the number of times a player has batted in a season ((does not include, walks (intentional and not intentional) sacrifice flies, bunts, and ground outs, and hit by pitches))
R- Runs, number of runs scored by a batter in a season
2B- Doubles, number of doubles a batter hit in a season
3B- Triples, number of triples a batter hit in a season
HR- Home runs, number of home runs a batter hit in a season
RBI- Number of runs batted in by a batter in a season
SB- Stolen bases, number of stolen bases by a batter in a season
BB- Walks, number of walks by a batter in season
SO- Strikeouts ,Number of strikeouts by a batter in a season
SLG- Slugging percentage, percentage of hits that are not singles in a season by a batter in a season
OBS- On base percentage, percentage of times a batter gets on base out of their total at bats in a season.
OPS- On base plus slugging percentage, the slugging percentage plus the on base percentage of a batter in a season.
AVG- Batting average, percentage of at bats that are hits by a batter in a season.


Hopefully this will help you out with learning more about the awesome game of baseball as you watch this season! 

The World Series

The World Series and the Road to its Path

One of the biggest championships in all of the major sports in America and around the world is discussed in some detail here. 

The World Series, the Fall Classic, etc. Major League Baseballs' championship is known by many names, but most sports fans refer to it as the World Series. It is to baseball as the Super Bowl is to football, the NBA Finals are to basketball, and the Stanley Cup is to hockey. It is the biggest set games in all of baseball and the winning team not only gets a trophy and bragging rights for the year, but also a lot of attention and money. 

The 27-Time World Series Champion New York Yankees with 

another World Series Trophy (2009)

Each Major League baseball season consists of a 162-game regular season that runs from the beginning of April till, depending on the year, either the end of September or the first couple of days of October and each team makes the trades, plays as hard as they can, and tries to avoid as many injuries and stratagise as well as possible for one goal: Make it to the playoffs and win the coveted World Series trophy and all the glory that comes with it. 

Here is a basic explanation of the MLB Playoff format as it currently stands. In each league (The National League and the American League), the winner of each division automatically makes the playoffs. To win the division, you have to have a better record than every other team in your division. However, if there is a tie and two teams have the same record, the team who has won more head to head match ups is the team that wins the division. If the two teams have the same record and have tied in head to head match ups, then the team that wins the division is the team with a better overall division record. There's even more tie breakers after this if the division winner still isn't determined but that will not be covered in this blog post. 

Anyways, so there are three division winners in each league and are seeded as the 1, 2, and 3 seeds based on their records. However, there are also two wild card teams in each league, the teams that haven't won their divisions but have the next best records. Unfortunately, this makes there be 5 playoff teams in each league and so to bring it down to 4 so that the ALDS and NLDS (Division Series) can be played, there is a one game wild-card playoff between the two wild card teams which is played at the stadium of the higher-ranked wild card team which is the team with the better record of the two wild card teams. Whoever wins this then plays the number 1 seed in one of  the 2 division series in each league. As you can see, the playoff system in Major League Baseball isn't as simple as it may seem at first. 

The rest of the playoffs runs as follows:

1) ALDS (American League Division Series- Best of 5 Games)  

• AL Number 1 Seed Vs. AL Number 4 Seed 
• AL Number 2 Seed Vs. AL Number 3 Seed

NLDS (National League Division Series- Best of 5 Games) 

• NL Number 1 Seed Vs. NL Number 4 Seed
• NL Number 2 Seed Vs. NL Number 3 Seed

2) ALCS (American League Championship Series- Best of 7 Games)

• AL Number 1/4 Seed Vs. AL Number 2/3 Seed 

WINNER: AL Champions

NLCS (National League Championship Series- Best of 7 Games)

• NL Number 1/4 Seed Vs. NL Number 2/3 Seed

WINNER: NL Champions

3) The World Series ( Best of 7 Games)

• AL Champions Vs. NL Champions 

Hopefully, this post has helped you understand some more of how the MLB playoffs work! 

The Different Divisions in Baseball

The Different Divisions in Baseball

A look into all the different teams that make up the  Major League Baseball League.


Below are each of the thirty Major League Baseball teams, in order vertically by division and alphabetically in each division. As you can see, there are six different division with five teams in each of them, making up the thirty teams of the league. Also, the first three columns make up the teams in the American League and the last three columns make up the teams in the National League, but we will go into more detail with this very soon.

All 30 MLB Teams and Their Divisions




There hasn't always been thirty teams in Major League baseball. In fact, back as early as 1901, there were still do leagues, but there was only one division in each league with only eight teams in each league, totaling a mere sixteen teams (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/#19011006).
However, slowly, more cities wanted to invest in professional teams, with the Tampa Bay Rays being the most recent team in 1998 unless you count the Montreal Expos move to Washington and becoming the Washington Nationals, as a whole new team in 2005 (Major League Baseball, Wikipedia Contributors).


Anyways, there are 6 divisions in the current MLB format, with each having 5 teams in them are two leagues, the National League and the American League, which each have 3 of these divisions within them. This is how the MLB Teams are set up based on each division which is based on the locations of each of the teams within the country, and Toronto in Canada.


A) The American League (AL):


1) AL East:                                       
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays


2) AL Central:
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins


3) AL West:
Houston Astros
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers


B) National League (NL):


1) NL East:
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals


2) NL Central:
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
St. Louis Cardinals
Pittsburgh Pirates


3) NL West:
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants


Now you know all the teams in the MLB, the divisions they play in, the leagues they play in, and where they are located.